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I take issue that I've been confusing the issue. I have not "obfuscated,
denied that there are such issues, and played the "everybody does it" game
(the false web server analogy)". (For what it's worth, I'm a contractor with
MadCap, not an employee and this discussion is eating my available hours for
the month)

I've been quite clear what I knew and what I don't know. I've been clear
that Feedback is a separate product and that you the author should make sure
you follow any and all local laws. I've been saying if and only if all
morning about the 2 products.

MadCap is not responsible for making sure you do your due diligence and
follow any and all local laws for a help system you develop and deploy. I
would be outraged if my tool even thought about doing that for me. Just like
you can't expect your content creation tool to stop you from plagerizing
other work. You need to be aware of that and not do that.

It's up to the professional content developer to make sure they are not
violating laws,
contracts, etc, when they use any tool.

> Perhaps part of the confusion here is that we're talking about two
> different users.
>
> Sharon correctly points out that the Flare user (the MadCap customer)
> has the option of turning off the feedback feature when the Help is
> created.
>
> Robert correctly points out that the user of the Help created by Flare
> (the MadCap customer's customer) has no such option, or even awareness
> that the feature exists.
>
> This sounds like a good reason for the Flare user not to enable the
> feature, but I hardly think it calls MadCap's ethics into question.

I completely agree that the ethical burden is on the MadCap customer --
especially considering what Fred said about Feedback (which was news to
me; earlier discussions led me to believe that it was a feature you
could enable in Flare). And I understand there are legitimate uses for
this kind of capability, like those Sharon mentioned.

I'd have no problem with MadCap if they clearly and forthrightly laid
out the ethical and legal considerations that their customers should be
aware of in deciding when and how to deploy Feedback. But instead,
they've obfuscated, denied that there are such issues, and played the
"everybody does it" game (the false web server analogy).

It may be unwitting, but they're in effect encouraging their customers
to use Feedback improperly.

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Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:http://www.doctohelp.com/

Help & Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. True single- sourcing
--
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Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author,
build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:http://www.doctohelp.com/

Help & Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. True single- sourcing --
generate 8 different formats and as many different versions as you need
from just one project. Fast and intuitive. http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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